San Diego Playbill - Theatre Reviews

When the World Was Green,
A Chef's Fable
by Sledgehammer Theatre

Laura Lee Juliano and Jim Chovick. Photo by Jennifer Setlow.

It all began with an insult – an insult delivered some two hundred years ago, back when the world was green. The mule of his Great-Great-Great Grandfather (give or take a “great”) was poisoned by a neighbor. The following Hatfield-and-McCoy-type family feud festered for more than a century until the time for revenge finally arrived.

The Old Man in the gray-brick cell knew from as far back as he could remember that he was destined to avenge the insult. He would have to kill a descendant of the rival family. Due to intermarrying, his intended victim turned out to be his cousin of the same age. They both grew up playing as childhood friends, always knowing this was their destiny – to be the hunter and the hunted. One to murder, the other to try to somehow escape the murderer. And for some sixty years he played cat-and-mouse with his intended victim, planning and savoring the assassination as one would the preparation of a gourmet meal. Except for a love of cooking, this plot of vengeance was the chef’s entire life. And now he sits in the jail cell convicted of murder, but for the murder of a stranger he mistook for his cousin.

His sole reason for life lost, he now wants only to die, refusing to eat and unable to sleep. But when a young journalist begins interviewing him, he slowly gets drawn into telling her his story – while at the same time learning bits and pieces of her story and her lifelong search for a father who abandoned her.

Co-written by Joseph Chaikin and Sam Shepard, When the World Was Green is an eloquent, engaging script from beginning to end (a mere eighty minutes later), and Sledgehammer Theatre’s production of it is masterful. Often known for producing plays that smash the senses with raw brutality, this one gently unfolds with a mesmerizing touch, tinged with the tale’s tragic and absurdist irony, with haunting original music by Ruff Yeager and sublime lighting effects by Jennifer Setlow setting the tone.

Jim Chovick commands the stage with a quiet, unassuming manner. Clearly he is deep inside his troubled, slightly mad, defeated soul as he tells his story, talking more to himself than to the interviewer, only brightening a little as she begins to rekindle the love he once had for cooking. Laura Lee Juliano is tender, sensitive, yet politely tenacious as the interviewer who is fixated on discovering how this murder came to be.

The production is beautifully staged by Kirsten Brandt – unfortunately her last production as the artistic director of Sledgehammer Theatre. The winner of countless local theatre awards over her six years at the helm, she has either written or directed such great successes as A Knife in the Heart, Furious Blood, Alice in Modernland, Sweet Charity, The Ghost Sonata, Macbeth, The Devil’s River, The Frankenstein Project, Richard III, and the mythic epic Berzerkergang. Fortunately she will be returning to local theatres as a guest director. Meanwhile, she leaves us with this final spellbinding tale of vengeance, forgiveness, and food preparation.

Performs through March 13, 2005.

Rob Hopper
San Diego Playbill

~ Cast ~

The Old Man: Jim Chovick
The Interviewer: Laura Lee Juliano
The Pianist/Original Music: Ruff Yeager

Director: Kirsten Brandt
Scenic Design: Nick Fouch
Costume Design: Mary Larson
Lighting Design: Jennifer Setlow
Stage Manager: Claudio Raygoza